Venezuelan National Assembly Tania Díaz and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello in the podcast Sin Truco Ni Maña, February 14, 2025. Photo: Con El Mazo Dando.
Venezuelan Minister for the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello reported that a network of internal “coyotes” linked to the opposition has been dismantled.
During the live broadcast of the podcast Sin Truco Ni Maña on Friday, February 14, which he hosts with National Assembly Deputy Tania Díaz, Cabello reported, “Yesterday, we finished dismantling a network of internal coyotes. This group had worked to get Leopoldo López out of Venezuela. They were planning to get Rocío San Miguel and another detainee from a clinic where they were being taken for treatment. These coyotes were going to use mercenaries to get them out.”
Cabello confirmed that, on Thursday, the three people paying the mercenaries were arrested. “I say mercenaries because they were going to attack the clinic with mercenaries. The mercenaries were to carry out the assault and deliver her [San Miguel] to the person who was going to take her to the network. The network would then be in charge… It is the network of the conspiracy. This is how they transported several people out of Venezuela.”
Cabello also reported the arrest of Luis Somaza, “a criminal who was in charge of the money in Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López’s NGOs, at first. Thereafter, María Corina Machado took advantage of his ‘experience,’ and he managed the NGOs for her as well, just as Smolansky. With whom did Smolansky start working? With Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó. Who did he end up working with? With María Corina, he is her delegate.”
“This one [Somaza] operated with the coyotes,” Cabello continued. “We got to him through the network of coyotes that we dismantled because he went back and forth. For example, when Ocariz came in July to organize the guarimbas in Petare [neighborhood of Caracas], he operated with [now-dead gang leader] Wilexis. Those who organized the guarimbas in Petare with Wilexis were Ocariz and Capriles over a long time. The gang was planted by them… It is a mafia gang.”
Far-right terrorist plot thwarted
Minister Cabello also referred to the press conference that he held on Thursday, reporting the thwarting of far-right terror plots against the country.
“The plot goes back to the Operation Aurora of 2019. They are the same people. They were the ones who were in Bolívar state on December 22, 2019,” Cabello stated. “A group of mercenaries who deserted the Armed Forces, who came from Brazil, created this operation to attack a fort. They failed because they were followed and abandoned the weaponry on the road. They had contacts in the Brazilian Army.”
Cabello commented that they then organized Operation Gold with the participation of an American mercenary named Matthew VanDyke. This plan was also discovered thanks to far-right influencers, who began to report everything on their social networks about what was going to happen.
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“They are terrorists,” Cabello said. “They were saying it all the time at the end of December, and then they began to talk about a signal from the sky. María Corina also said, ‘In the skies, you will see the signal,’ which was the second phase of the operation.”
Cabello stated that those involved in the plot have been arrested and confessed. In their telephones, the conversations of the mercenaries with these influencers were found. “They should know that they have pending proceedings with the Venezuelan justice system,” he commented. “They are terrorists and participated in terrorist acts against the people of Venezuela. Eventually, they will be judged for that… Only two individuals associated with Operation Gold are missing. There could be three if a name we are waiting for confirmation on is confirmed.”
Paid journalists participated in destabilization attempts
Cabello highlighted how the paid journalists abroad have used their professional training to cause harm and how the influencers they had used before have not come out again to speak “because they have not been paid again.”
He also highlighted how the far-right arrived at the July 28 elections, “threatening all of Venezuela that they were going to seize power. They tried to do so on July 29. They spent more or less a month trying to generate acts of violence throughout the country until August 28, which was the last time they came out publicly and then, suddenly, they went silent.”
Deputy Tania Díaz stated that, with its paid journalists, the far-right had not undertaken just a simple campaign. “Rather, it is harassment. It is a moral firing squad that they are doing… to justify the physical lynching [of Chavistas] and, now, even the USAID is investigating them.”
“If it is proven that these people received money to carry out harassment or lynching against Chavistas, against the Venezuelan State, against the Venezuelan people, falsely accusing migrants of being criminals—migrants who are also victims of fascism—then they are responsible. They are much more than just morally responsible for what they do in the media,” she stated, stressing that the far-right is causing harm to Venezuelan families.
(Últimas Noticias) by María Eugenia Rodríguez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
